WorkWise: Winning at a one-company job search

Mildred L. Culp

Thursday

Dec 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 27, 2007 at 4:30 AM

You may be able to obtain what some people consider the impossible -- a single offer from a single company -- by carefully constructing an entire job search around one organization. Today's marketplace has grown so competitive that many people conclude that job hunting is a game of numbers. As a result, they resort to broadcasting hundreds of resumes and cover letters to companies and recruiters, and expending their energy marketing themselves through the Internet.

You may be able to obtain what some people consider the impossible -- a single offer from a single company -- by carefully constructing an entire job search around one organization. Today's marketplace has grown so competitive that many people conclude that job hunting is a game of numbers. As a result, they resort to broadcasting hundreds of resumes and cover letters to companies and recruiters, and expending their energy marketing themselves through the Internet.

Use the shotgun approach to landing a job, and you'll decrease your chances of finding the job you want. You're deluding yourself into thinking that job hunting is career bingo: The more pieces of paper you send out, the more likely your number will finally come up. These tactics produce a "random" job offer, one that may suit the company but not meet your needs at all.

In today's market, you have to try every imaginable method. The one most people overlook or dismiss requires the most personal of personal contact marketing – securing a job at the one company where you'd most like to work. Perhaps you don't know anyone who has found a job this way, but you can do it.

Opening the Door

If you know the specific kind of job you want, identify and target the one organization you find most attractive. (Obviously, it probably won't be one with a hiring freeze.) Combine a skill that that company is hard-pressed to find with good timing, the right contacts, and outstanding persuasive ability. Be realistic. Those factors require a rarified job seeker.

Latch onto a company with a future, preferably one at least 10 years old and where you've done business. You don't want to bounce in and bounce out within a year or two.

Get a good feel for the company by researching it well. Read its most recent two or three annual reports. Check changes in its stock, if listed, and what movement is predicted. Scour business publication indexes for newspaper and magazine articles about the company. Be analytical and critical. Gather information and make sense of it.

Become well-acquainted with people in the organization. Meet them by doing business with them in your current company, or by scouring conferences and trade shows. While they don't have to have your personality or skills, make sure that you like and respect them. Any company with the wrong employees isn't the right company for you.

Select one person who is well-placed in the organization to help you with your search. However, if you can only build contacts at mid- or lower-level, don't panic. An honest person will tell you exactly what he can do to help and give you lots of advice and information.

After a reasonable period of time, if you seem to be hunting fruitlessly, soul search. Do you really belong there, or have you just not figured out how to work the system?

You may not have found a good sponsor. Open the door by communicating at the highest, most visible public level you possibly handle. Give a speech at a trade association meeting, one that will publicize your talk in advance. Publish an article in a well-recognized trade journal. Send a copy of it to the person you'd like to sponsor you. Get quoted in the newspaper. Continue to increase your visibility this way until your reputation builds.

Getting to Negotiation

Once you've secured the right level of attention, get your resume and cover letter in order. Don't think that if you're a good writer, you'll probably be able to do the job by yourself. Good writers need good editors. Also, if you don't have much experience writing marketing letters, you probably won't write effective ones now. Find someone in your area who does. Consider the expense an investment in your future, something that will have more positive impact on you than dinners out or a vacation you think you can't live without.

Submit your materials, and follow up. Follow the advice of the person who's helping you in the company and the one who drafted your marketing materials. Don't overpromote. If you garner too much attention internally, you may look desperate or unfocused. You'll also seem not to be playing by the rules that your sponsor establishes. The better known you become, the less attention you need to draw to yourself. Communicating with others helps assure perspective for you.

Complete your search following the conventional rules of job hunting. If the company is out of town, don't volunteer to pay for a visit on your nickel. You'll seem desperate and naive. Stay particularly attuned to timing in the organization. Adjust your timetable, as needed.

A job in a one-company search can materialize if you market yourself in a highly personal campaign. Recruit a sponsor or guide, and listen carefully to what people tell you.

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